General John Hyten, who is in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal, revealed on Saturday that he would not carry out a nuclear strike ordered by President Trump, if he thought it were illegal. As Huffington Post report, he would weigh up proportional response and unnecessary suffering when considering legality. Clearly this is fantastic news for the well-being of our planet and all our lives that depend on it. It should also influence anyone planning for the removal of Trump as US President.

In January I bought a pair of FatFace Chinos and I wore them for probably a couple of days each week until, in September, they suddenly developed a huge tear in a seam. I took them with me to a local store and tried on their current range, finding a very similar pair which I was planning to buy. I enquired with the manager about refunding or replacing this obviously very faulty product, but was told flatly that all their clothes are only guaranteed for 6 months and there was nothing she could do to help me.

Are quality cotton chino trousers, with an RRP of £45, designed to last 6 months? Does anyone buy trousers with that lifespan in mind?

If your government has popular support, you can exercise your will over the army and still sleep safely at night. If your government leads without popular support, as some in the world still do, military backing is the only reason you’re still in power and you absolutely cannot piss them off.

October featured two great future bass mixes and lots of Catalan music, as I tried to fully immerse myself in the culture before and during my short trip there. My top track comes courtesy of Youtube channel 7clouds, which I discovered thanks to Youtube recommending me this Pink Vibes mix. Just my kind of music!

This is an 800 word edit of an earlier post entitled “One evening in Catalonia“, published to contribute to the conversation. Events took place on Tuesday 17th October 2017.

In Girona, on an unusually warm October evening, I find myself in the centre of a crowd of Catalans noisily demanding independence. Jaume responded to my advert on Couchsurfing for a place to stay. To his surprise, I asked to join him on tonight’s protest. The previous day the Spanish state imprisoned two of the leaders of the independence movement, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, on charges of sedition. They face a maximum sentence of 14 years.

It is by sheer chance that I find myself in Girona, on an unusually warm October evening, in the centre of a crowd of Catalans noisily demanding independence. Jaume responded to my advert on Couchsurfing for a place to stay. To his surprise, I asked to join him on tonight’s protest. The previous day the Spanish state imprisoned two of the leaders of the independence movement, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, on charges of sedition. They face a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Yesterday, my most loved and respected living philosopher re-posted to his blog a concise summary of how he approaches life, the social world and his place and role in it. He draws on two American myths that may not speak directly to an international audience, but I hope that we can all understand his basic assumptions and logical conclusions and include them more in our own lives.

September seemed to fly by and already we’re a third of the way through October. I didn’t listen to all that much new music last month and was extremely busy immersing myself in cryptocurrency markets and planning two upcoming trips abroad. I will be strongly endeavouring to post more often this autumn. I have countless drafts between 60 and 90% completed and just need the time and focus to get down to the task and finish them off. Anyway, on with the music, which includes as ever a number of trap and future bass tracks, and a couple of albums I’ve thoroughly enjoyed rediscovering.

It was really difficult to decide on which song should have pride of place at the top of the post this month. I heard some absolutely fantastic tunes. In the end it had to be TrexytII’s Best of August future house mix, a 38 minute compilation which led me to discover at least three grade-A tracks.

At the start of July I was in London for a couple of days for a conference on a research project. Naturally I booked a seat on a coach arriving stupidly early in the morning (6:15AM) and took my camera. I spent about three hours wandering a circuitous route from Victoria to the conference hall in Millbank, just behind Parliament, via Battersea on the south side of the Thames. Fortunately, it turned out to be a pretty gorgeous morning. Here are the best of the photos I took.